If you've bought California nectarines, peaches, plums or pluots lately, even the organic kind, check the label carefully.

The Wawona Packing Co. in Cutler, California, announced late last week it's expanding a voluntary recall of its products.

The fruit may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium that can cause listeriosis. This serious infection can give you temporary problems such as a high fever, abdominal pain and diarrhea, headaches, stiffness and nausea.
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More than 4,000 pounds of rib-eye and other fresh beef products have been recalled because they could contain contaminated materials linked to mad cow disease.

The meat in question was processed at Fruitland American Meat in Jackson, Missouri, and distributed to a Whole Foods distribution center in Connecticut, which services its New England stores, and a restaurant in New York City and another one in Kansas City, Missouri. The beef was produced and packaged between September 2013 and April 2014.

The USDA has classified the recall a "Class II," meaning the health risk is low. There have been no reports of illness as a result of consumption.

READ: 4,000 pounds of rib-eyes, other beef recalled; mad cow disease a concern

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday threw its weight and pocketbook behind the federal investigation of a California slaughterhouse where CNN exposed issues surrounding one of the biggest meat recalls in years.

The latest congressional action authorizes $1 million in additional funding to "provide for a swift completion" of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's probe into the Rancho Feeding Corporation.

Federal investigators have said they believe the Petaluma, California-based company bought diseased dairy cows and processed them when government inspectors weren't there. After the cows were killed, employees would hide the warning signs of cancer by trimming off diseased parts, using a fake stamp of approval or even replacing the heads of sick cows with ones from healthy animals.
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Another day, another food safety warning. Earlier this week it was beef, hummus and walnuts. This time, the culprit is sprouts.

In a press release issued Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised consumers not to eat Evergreen Produce brand raw clover. The release states that these sprouts are possibly linked to seven confirmed and three probable cases of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli in Idaho and Washington. Fifty percent of the people sickened were hospitalized.

Even people with uncompromised immune systems are strongly cautioned to discard any Evergreen Produce sprouts in sealed containers so no other humans, pets or wild animals can consume them and become infected. Thoroughly cooking sprouts can reduce the chance of foodborne illness, says the FDA, but be careful – since 1996, there have been at least 30 reported outbreaks of foodborne illness associated with different types of raw and, yes, lightly cooked sprouts.

But aren't sprouts supposed to be - healthy? They're the stuff of health food cafes and virtuous hummus pockets. They're supposed to add beneficial, low-calorie crunch to salads and sandwiches, not cause you to, per the CDC, "develop diarrhea (often bloody) and abdominal cramps" or possibly become severely ill and die.
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